Preparing the Next Generation of Leaders in Education

Published in 8/1/2003

Students
who attend the College today will be the educational leaders of
tomorrow. TC students and alumni are frequent contributors to research
projects or activities that have an impact on the community.
Scholarships make it possible for them to complete their studies or
work on the projects that are driving them forward toward their future
role in education.

Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers

Stephen Thornton

Impact of 9/11 on Social Studies Teaching

Preparing
tomorrow's teachers involves incorporating today's lessons into
classroom practice. In light of our country's current situation as a
result of the attacks of September 11, 2001, the ways in which social
studies and history are taught have become an important consideration
for educators.

Stephen J. Thornton, Associate Professor of Social Studies Education, in an interview with the Charleston Post and Courier,
reflected on the situation by saying that during World War II,
German-Americans were singled out and Japanese-Americans were put in
internment camps. The message these days, he said, is that those who
carried out the attacks on September 11th are not reflective of
Muslims. "It's an important educational contribution after decades of
teaching that we have to live in a pluralistic society and tolerance is
important," he said.

He
added that teachers will likely pay more attention to the role of
religions in world history and more attention to civil liberties and
national security issues in civics or American history. "The way social
studies teachers are addressing the issue of September 11th will have a
long-term effect," he said. "It seems that large-scale curriculum
changes are hard to bring about and long-term changes will have to be
incorporated by educating teachers, themselves."

To
that end, Thornton collaborated with colleague Professor Margaret Smith
Crocco on a three-year professional development program for teachers of
American history, including bilingual and special education teachers,
from all 38 Manhattan high schools. The project, known as the Enduring
Themes in American History (ETAH) grant, supported by the U.S.
Department of Education's Teaching American History Grants Program,
aims to develop a critical mass of teacher-historians. These teachers
will improve their students' performance by gaining a stronger
understanding in and practice in teaching American history. For more details, click here.

Students Making Their Mark

Students
at Teachers College are encouraged to and supported in creating their
own ways of furthering the goals of strengthening efforts to reach
people through quality education. That education does not necessarily
have to take place in the classroom.

As
part of her dissertation research, Adrienne Stevens Zion, who received
her Ed.D. in May 2002 from TC, looked at the family history of
hypertension in African-American males and compared it to a similar
group of non-African Americans. She found that black males have
disproportionate detrimental consequences of hypertension compared to
any other group in the United States, leading to enormous financial
costs related to medical and disability expenses. She was supported in
her work by her advisor Professor Ronald De Meersman, who was also
co-investigator on the study.

Zion
noted that if markers of disease risk are verified in young
asymptomatic African Americans, they can minimize the onset and
progression of cardiovascular disease by making lifestyle changes early
on. The study is especially relevant to the American Physiological
Society, an organization that specializes in understanding the
processes and functions underlying human health and disease, which has
embarked on an aggressive campaign to build public awareness of
physiology and the benefits it provides to human health.

Her
research, which looked at race, arterial compliance, and autonomic
modulation, was awarded the prestigious Caroline tum Suden/Francis
Hellebrandt Professional Opportunity Award by the American
Physiological Society.

It's
not only the doctoral students at TC who are working to make their mark
on education. Sophia Ali, who received her master's degree in
Developmental Psychology in May 2002, is making educational and media
history in her native Pakistan by producing a half-hour television show
for children, the most neglected segment of Pakistani television's
target audience. For details, click here.

Alumni Working Toward a Better World Through Education

Educating Through Heroic Example

TC
alumna Kathleen Morin was working as a consultant to several
not-for-profit organizations in 1990 when she was enlisted to help
develop and launch a new classroom education program for the Raoul
Wallenberg Committee of the United States. The theme was "A Study of
Heroes: A Program that Inspires and Educates Through Heroic Example,"
and was a multicultural, interdisciplinary K-12 program.

She
soon learned that Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat who, at great
personal risk, leveraged his position to save the lives of thousands of
Hungarian Jews during World War II. He was never seen again after being
arrested by the Soviet military after the war.

In
the early stages of the program, Morin said that polls showed that
young people named sports and entertainment figures as their heroes-and
virtually all of them were men. Morin and the chairperson of the
committee, Rachel Oestreicher Bernheim, spent the following year in
places from kindergarten classes to senior centers telling the story of
Raoul Wallenberg to generate interest in their new program. Students
soon began to recognize the difference between a hero and a celebrity.

All
told, Morin and Bernheim spent four years "camping out" in classrooms
in New York City and North Carolina, fine-tuning their program. A core
element, suggested by one teacher, is that the kids are encouraged to
come up with their own concept of a hero and not memorize someone
else's construct.

A
new unit they have developed explores "The Heroes of 9/11"-and looks at
police and firefighters who figured directly in the rescue and recovery
efforts following the 2001 terrorist attacks, as well as on the many
healthcare workers, volunteers and others who respond daily to
emergency needs across the country. The unit will emphasize that one
needn't have spent time at Ground Zero to be considered heroic.

Promoting Development Through Art Education

Another
alumnus, Rob Horowitz, who is also an adjunct Associate Professor of
Music Education, is doing research and evaluations of arts
partnerships-of what students learn from the arts-and basic research on
how the arts affect development and schools. As Associate Director of
Learning In and Through the Arts, Horowitz co-authored a national
report funded by the GE Fund and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation on the impact of the arts and learning with Professors
Judith Burton and Hal Abeles.

"There
is a debate in the field of arts education-whether arts should be
taught as instrumental to other subjects, or whether they should be
taught for their own sake," Horowitz said.

Schools
today, he said, are under tremendous pressure because of high stakes
tests, resulting in the arts being pulled back to make time for
curriculum issues.

As
part of the study Horowitz did with Burton and Abeles, they were one of
seven research groups under an umbrella of what was called "Champions
of Change." Through their research, he said, "We found various ways in
which the arts affect school climate, children's relationships with
teachers, and more significantly, connections between arts learning and
cognitive, social and personal development."

He
continued, "When we worked on ‘Champions of Change,' we found that
looking at reading and math scores is not a credible way to look at an
outcome of arts learning."

One
area that was particularly striking, Horowitz said, was that children
involved in multiple arts activities take risks and chances in their
learning community. They also found that, through arts experiences and
performances, teachers see aspects of children that they might not have
gotten to understand, and it changes the relationship and can change
the child's trajectory in school.

"Children
who are engaged in the arts start to see themselves as good at
something else besides the traditional subjects, and it gives them a
chance to excel in different ways. That can change their relationship
with peers," Horowitz said.

He
recently received a grant from the Department of Education for the
ArtsConnection-a New York City provider of arts education to New York
City schools-to set up artist residencies in various schools. The grant
will be used to prepare artists and teachers to work together in the
schools and to apply their principals and practices at other schools.

Investing in the Future

Jeffrey
Peek, a member of the Board of Trustees since 1998, who served on
several Board committees including the National Campaign Committee, was
looking for some way to honor his late father-in-law Robert Lewis
Taylor, a longtime writer for The New Yorker and the Pulitzer
Prize-winning author of the 1959 novel, The Travels of Jamie
McPheeters. Knowing that the TC Capital Campaign's first priority is to
raise funds to assist students through scholarships, Peek and his wife
Elizabeth decided to create the Robert Lewis Taylor Scholarship, which
he said will allow "generations of gifted students" the opportunity to
attend Teachers College.

Peek
is concerned about future generations of leaders, and he sees education
as the answer. "If there's a way we're going to move society forward,
it certainly has to be substantially through education, and there's no
better institution than Teachers College to fulfill that mission."

The
first Robert Lewis Taylor Scholar is Carrie Gardner, who is working
towards her master's degree in Social Studies and Education. Gardner,
who grew up in Ridgefield, New Jersey, and received her bachelor's
degree from Tufts University, is pursuing her degree to switch careers.
She worked in media relations in Boston, but said she found it
"personally unfulfilling." She said, "The scholarship was an enormous
incentive in my decision-making process to attend Teachers College. TC
is a great institution, but the scholarship certainly helped."

This
year, the Committee for Community and Diversity (CCD) has chosen two
students to receive its $3,000 grant for research to enhance and expand
the understanding of diversity. This year's recipients are Leanne M.
Stahnke, a doctoral student in the Department of Curriculum and
Teaching, and Kenneth A. Kozol, Ed.M. candidate in the Department of
Arts and Humanities. Stahnke's research looks at how youth activism
plays a role for students in under-funded schools. Kozol's project
focuses on the folk music of children from Puerto Rico, Mexico and the
Dominican Republic. For details, click here.

John Dewey Scholars

John
Dewey Scholars receive financial assistance from the general
scholarship fund, which is made up in part by gifts to the TC Annual
Fund. The scholars are named in honor of those members of the John
Dewey Circle who contribute more than $10,000 to the TC Fund. A
reception in November at Casa Italiana brought together donors to the
Fund and some of the Dewey scholars who benefit from their generosity.

It
was a cabaret-inspired evening of food, drink, art and musical
entertainment that was provided as a thank you to the members of the
John Dewey Circle. Among the musical performers was the Heritage School
Jazz Band under the direction of Jesus Santiago, an M.A. graduate in
Music Education from TC, who also played alto sax. The Heritage School
is a New York City public high school in East Harlem devoted to the
arts that was founded by Teachers College in 1997. Trustee Joyce Cowin
has been an active supporter of the school since its inception.

One
of the Dewey scholars, Gina Buontempo, was asked to speak at the event.
A fourth year doctoral student in Social-Organizational Psychology, she
said, "Know that your donations to the fund do not go unrecognized. It
is evident from your generosity that you still feel a connection to
Teachers College, and it is this that serves as an inspiration to those
of us who are currently attending the College."

Victor
Lin and Sun Ho Joo, Ed.D. students in the Music Education Program, and
Naoko Hashimoto, an M.A. student in Music Education, also entertained
the guests. As a final treat, Lin's band, The Victor Lin Jazz Trio,
awed the crowd with a rendition of "My Shining Hour," receiving a
standing ovation.

Dr.
Ben D. Wood was a Professor of Collegiate Educational Research at
Columbia University and was an early pioneer in learning technologies.
He played a key role in the development and proliferation of
standardized tests, and was awarded the Teachers College Medal for
Distinguished Service in 1969. Through the generosity of the Wood
family, the Wood Trust Funds have had a positive effect on the College.

Each
year the Ben D. Wood Fellowship Fund provides a three-year,
full-tuition scholarship to a new doctoral student studying technology
and education. This year, the fund was able to provide fellowships for
two students.

The
two students who are the Ben D. Wood fellowship recipients in learning
technologies, Shuli Gilutz and Julie Youm, are exploring connections
between theories of cognitive development and possible applications for
instructional technology. They are currently doctoral candidates in the
Cognitive Studies program with Professor John Black.

Gilutz
and Youm join a distinguished group of former and current fellows. Dan
Swartz, the first Ben D. Wood fellow, is now a tenured professor at the
Stanford University School of Education.

Gilutz
is originally from Israel and received her bachelor's degree in
psychology and the multidisciplinary program in the arts from Tel Aviv
University. She earned a master's degree in learning design and
technology from Stanford University. Prior to coming to Teachers
College, Gilutz worked in the field of interactive design creating Web
sites and CD-ROMs for kids. Her most recent project was a research
study for the Nielsen Norman group on Web usability for kids.

Youm
studied Mechanical Engineering as an undergraduate at Carnegie Mellon
University before going on to work for many years as a software
developer. She received a master's degree in computer science from
Johns Hopkins University. Youm became interested in education while
working at Apple. Though she was not directly involved in educational
projects, the company's strong educational focus piqued her interest in
developing software for an instructional setting. She began studying
part-time in the Instructional Technologies department in 2002. The
Wood fellowship allowed her to enter the Cognitive Studies Department
as a full-time doctoral student.